Menu

When Washington slashes budgets, real people suffer

When Congress mandates an across-the-board cut this year for everything from scientific research to public defenders to special education, it’s not just numbers on a page. It’s a P.I. that loses his or her lab, a postdoc that is unexpectedly laid off, a researcher that cannot complete a drug trial, and a man with AIDS who will no longer receive the care he needs.

That’s why “Faces of Austerity: How Budget Cuts Have Made Us Sicker, Poorer, and Less Secure,” the new report from NDD United, is so important. “Faces of Austerity” shines a light on the actual people behind the programs being cut by Washington’s budget recklessness. The report is the first of its kind: a comprehensive, sector-by-sector look at what’s happening far from Washington noise, on the ground across the country where seniors, children and families have been devastated by national budget cuts.

In the report, we meet people in the scientific sector representing a cross section of basic, applied, and translational scientific research programs that improve the quality of life of Americans. These snapshots are one of many stories that demonstrate the devastating effect of budget cuts.